Harmeet Dhillon resigns as US Civil Rights chief, calls role honour of a lifetime

Harmeet Kaur Dhillon resigned as US assistant attorney general after delaying the announcement until Election Day passed. Her exit marks the Trump administration's first senior departure since the mid-term elections.

In Short

• White House requested delaying the public announcement until after Election Day
• Attorney General Todd Blanche praised her fearless enforcement and public service
• She highlighted efforts against DEI and protections for women's sports

Indian-American Harmeet Kaur Dhillon has resigned as US Assistant Attorney General and head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, becoming the first senior official to leave the Trump administration since the mid-term elections, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

Dhillon said she resigned voluntarily but delayed announcing her decision at the request of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles until after Election Day.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the resignation on social media, saying Dhillon had “led the Civil Rights Division with conviction”. “She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favour,” Blanche wrote on X on Thursday. “The department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavours,” he added.

Dhillon, whose law firm was part of Donald Trump's campaign legal team, told Fox News that she had resigned of her own volition, according to PTI.

“Serving my country as AAG for Civil Rights has been the honour of a lifetime. We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls' sports, and so much more. I want to thank President Trump for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to what's next,” she said in a post on X.

Born in Chandigarh into a Punjabi Sikh family, Dhillon moved with her parents first to London and later to the United States. A staunch ally of President Donald Trump, she ran her own law firm in San Francisco for several years before joining the Justice Department.

Dhillon is a frequent guest on conservative podcasts and is highly active on social media. Unlike her predecessors, she regularly posted videos about the work of her division. In media interviews, she acknowledged that social media posts often gave her ideas for civil rights investigations.

At a Moms for Liberty event in New York in May, Dhillon described moving to the US as the “greatest gift” her parents had given her. “My dad was an orthopaedic surgeon. Mom and Dad left India in the 1970s because it was a Russian client state. They had a dictated two-children policy and a planned economy, and Mom and Dad didn't want to raise their kids in that kind of an environment, so they came to America,” said Dhillon, who rose to prominence as a civil rights attorney.

“Besides life, the greatest gift that Mom and Dad gave me was bringing me here to America and allowing me to be sworn in as a naturalised American citizen when I was 10 years old,” she said. Dhillon said her parents moved to the US when the country faced a shortage of doctors and Washington was inviting medical professionals during the Vietnam War.

Dhillon's departure ends her tenure as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division after she delayed the announcement until the elections were over.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends